The present invention relates generally to power line networking techniques. More particularly, the invention provides an apparatus for testing a signal strength of a high speed power line network using a testing method and apparatus. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied in a local area network environment, but it would be recognized that other applications exist. The invention can also be applied to building area networking, home networking, office networking, apartments, any combination of these, and other networking applications.
Telecommunication techniques have been around for numerous years. In the early days, a communication technique known as telegraph was developed. Telegraph generally transferred information from one geographical location to another geographical location using electrical signals in the form of “dots” and “dashes” over transmission lines. An example of commonly used electrical signals is Morse code. Telegraph has been, for the most part, replaced by telephone. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1800s to transmit and send voice information using electrical analog signals over a telephone line, or more commonly a single twisted pair copper line. Most industrialized countries today rely heavily upon telephone to facilitate communication between businesses and people, in general.
In the 1990s, another significant development in the telecommunication industry occurred. People began communicating to each other by way of computers, which are coupled to the telephone lines or telephone network or other communication network. These computers or workstations coupled to each other can transmit many types of information from one geographical location to another geographical location. In general, there has been various types of computer networks, including local area networks, commonly called LANs, and wide are networks, commonly called WANs.
Local area networks have been used to connect computers in a smaller geographic region than wide area networks. Most local area networks rely upon dedicated cables to transmit the communication signals through the network. An alternative way of transmitting such communication signals through non-dedicated cables but through a power supply network is referred to as Powerline Communication, commonly called PLC. Powerline communication relies upon pre-existing power lines that are used to supply electrical power distributed through buildings, such as homes and office structures. Conventional PLC relies upon radio frequency technologies. Although power line communications have been successful in part, many limitations still exist.
For example, the newly developed powerline communication generally has not yet been “mainstream.” and has limited capability due to lack of infrastructure. Additionally, powerline network devices are lacking and simply do not exist on a wide scale. In conventional office settings in the United States, powerline networking is usually absent and almost non-existent due to many integration difficulties in a home or office network environment. Additionally, once implemented, powerline networks may be often difficult to test and diagnose from limited powerline utility tools.
From the above, it is seen that improved techniques for powerline networks are highly desired.